Agayar Akhundzade: Some figures wanted our failure in Beijing

Baku. Elshen Mammadov - APA-Sport. “I consider it a great success for our judo wresters to score one gold and one bronze medal in Beijing Olympics. They performed well in previous Olympics but faced biased decisions of the referees”, Azerbaijan judo team coach Agayar Akhundzade told APA-Sport.

The trainer stated that Elnur Mammadli (73 kg) who scored the gold medal performed a real judo fight.
“Every spectacular enjoyed his performance. All the coaches and the sportsmen in the hall congratulated us. Mammadli won all five encounters by ippon”, he said.
Akhundzade touched upon the performance of Movlud Mireliyev who won the bronze medal in 100 kg event. The 51-aged coach noted Mireliyev corrected the mistake he had made four years ago in Athens.
“Movlud could have scored gold medal as well. If he had beaten Mongolian wrestler Tuvshinbayar Naidan in semifinal, he would have encountered Kazakh sportsman Askhat Jitkeyev. No doubt, Movlud could have won the final bout because he defeated Askhat in all encounters before”, he said.
Azerbaijani sportsmen have never scored two Olympic gold medals yet. Akhundzade noted that Mammadli is able to break the chain.
“Elnur is young, he is 20. Much may change till next Olympics. We haven’t decided in what weight Elnur should join the competitions in the future. The fitness and preparation level of the sportsman is of great importance in this case”, he said.
Akhundzade was expected to resign from the post in case of failure in Beijing. The qualified trainer stated that there are some figures that spread such rumors.
“I don’t want to name them. There are some forces in judo community that left for Beijing to see our failure in Olympics. They planned to nominate for the post after my dismissal. I think they will have to wait for another four years as their plans didn’t work. I have all necessary strength and energy to prepare the team for 2012 Olympics. Most of the sportsmen will stay in the squad. I will add several young wrestlers to the team as well”, he said.